The Lehigh and its Canal. 7 



site for such an effect, and we must therefore conclude, that the riv- 

 ers have, in most instances, merely flowed on through the lowest and 

 least obstructed passages; their channels they have doubtless deep- 

 ened, and modified, often to an astonishing degree, but they have 

 rarely formed them through solid rocks. Soon after passing Lehigh- 

 ton, a little village three miles from Mauch Chunk, we entered 

 another pass, which the Lehigh makes through the mountains. It is 

 not like the former a section of the barrier; it is rather a long 

 circuitous gorge between two barriers, which, although they pursue a 

 winding course, still preserve their parallelism ; and their feet, near 

 Mauch Chunk, approach so near to each other that there is only room 

 for the Lehigh and the canal on one side, and for a road cut into the 

 mountain on the other ; it is so narrow that the river is almost within 

 reach on the right, and the mountain rocks are quite so on the left. 



MAUCH CHUNK. 



THE RIVER AND CANAL 



At evening, we found a fine hotel in this wild gorge, where there 

 is scarcely room for the house, which, in the rear, is overhung by the 

 mountain, while the roaring Lehigh rushes by in front. This roar- 

 ing is increased by a dam which, with many others, was erected 

 some years ago, for the purpose of improving the navigation by 

 producing still water above ; the arks passed through sluices which 

 could he opened and closed at pleasure, and were not expect- 

 ed to return, being broken up and sold at their places of desti- 

 nation. Since the construction of the canal, the dams have a more 

 limited use, although they still answer a valuable purpose in some 

 parts of the river, by producing still water, and there is in such cases 

 a towpath along the bank, so that the river becomes a substitute for 

 a canal ; the latter is however here chiefly relied upon, and it is 

 obvious that in a river so rapid arid turbulent as this, requiring 

 for the purpose of making still water, numerous dams at very short 

 intervals, such an arrangement must be inconvenient, and Uiere- 

 Ibre, a canal has been constructed at great expense along its banks, 

 and that not only because it admits of navigation both up and down 

 stream, but also for safety and certainty ; for property sunk in it, (a 

 rare occurrence compared with the frequent accidents in the river,) is 

 easily recovered, but in the river it is usually lost. Some dams are 

 however siill necessary in the river, to raise the water for feedin 



